DAJK

I dunno, I jumped a fair amount of times lol

After seeing Smile last night, I really kind of wish it was a genuine breakout. I think it’s my favourite horror of the year, and while not everything in it works, it has all the elements to become a contemporary horror megahit. Even quality-wise, it’s basically The Ring meets It Follows, with a sprinkle of Mike Flanagan thrown in there.

The marketing was just terrible for Bros imo. The studio should have realized they have a winner on their hands, and I just don't think the awareness was there outside of us/Film Twitter/Letterboxd crowds. Even people I know in the LGBTQ+ community, while they have heard of the film, had no idea when it was even coming out. And that lack of awareness I think is entirely on the marketing team.

That's what's so odd to be about putting such big event films straight to streaming with no theatrical run at all. HP2 could have made 100M WW (if not more), and THEN Disney could have put it on Disney + for their catalogue. Same with things like Glass Onion (or any other streaming movie that has a built-in fanbase; I'm thinking also about Disenchanted). They are leaving so much money on the table, are they not? Or is there something I'm missing?

Now, I fully stand by that if Hocus Pocus 2 was theatrical this weekend, it would have been #1. Guessing it would have had a similar run to Jack Black's Goosebumps.

Summer’s inflated previews are gone. Let’s see if this thing can manage WOM to get to 20.

Bros numbers tonight across theatres I tracked seems actually pretty close with Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Studio comedy that unfortunately just plays to a niche crowd I guess (a shame, since I liked both those movies this year). Going to guess 7M weekend or so, 20M total. Smile actually performed pretty similar to The Black Phone in quite a few markets. Won't be surprised to see this make it to 20M this weekend.

Uhhhh, I'm seeing Black Adam shows starting as early as 1:20 on Thursday the 20th. Are we doing 1:00 start times now?

Yep, looks like something that’s going to make me cry.

Fair, but as of September last year, did many people even think that CODA was a "CODA in sight to surprise everyone"? Like, the film was very well-received sure. But this time last year, it was really only discussed (by most) as a potential contender. Not the front-runner or even a possible upset.

True but people did say that about Power of the Dog last year, and then CODA came in with the win. So...

I’m... not defending the movie. I’m criticizing a poor review. Not because I disagree with the critic’s opinion of the movie (I for one am only going to watch it if I have friends who want to see it, it’s not something I’m going out of my way for). Criticizing a criticism isn’t the same thing as defending the thing that the person is criticizing (that’s a weird sentence lol).

Damn, Ehrlich's review was painful to sit through. Other than the fact that it seems to be a criticism of David O Russell as a person/director (very, very valid), he really said a whole lot of nothing about the movie itself lol. Oh, and used it to take cheap film-Twitter-esque shots (Malek, DeNiro). Which is fine for film Twitter, but it really felt like that was seeping into what's supposed to be a "professional" review. Ony think that was missing was a Peter Farrelley crack (again, maybe valid, but beside the point, it felt more like a rant than a review).

Hopefully Ticket To Paradise and Bros can walk (box office wise) so this can run. Bring back the studio comedy for the 2020s please!

I was a villain last season? ... *gasp*

I genuinely think Smile could pull a Happy Death Day run at this point.

Avatar 2 is going to have a TGM-type run (domestically, at least) as long as its good.

DWD looked to be on average 85% of true Friday today at the theatres I track. With outliers as low as 77% and as high as 129%. But most fell in the mid-80s or 90% give or take. If that holds, it would give roughly a 5.4M Saturday. Oh and Avatar's pretty much exactly what Charlie said, about 20% increase from yesterday across the board.

Yes

In Canada (at least BC), as long as one member of the group is over 17 (or 18 in our case) everyone in that group can go in.

Yea Saturday for DWD is definitely below true Friday in pretty much every market I'm looking at. Not alarmingly below true Friday, but just enough. Avatar seems to be increasing in some areas, surprisingly enough.

@Webslinger and @filmlover said it better than I ever could, and I echo their sentiments almost entirely. The performances were fine, and I did like a few of the stylish choices. Also the score and sound design was honestly fantastic. But the twist was obvious from a mile away. The first half of the movie was honestly a slog, and when it started to get interesting, it was more in a campy sort of way rather than being genuinely intriguing. Felt very much like a decent little 45 minute Black Mirror episode that was inexplicably stretched into 2+ hours.

Honestly kind of expected for DWD after seeing it. Pretty mediocre movie all things considered, it had its fun moments, but it also kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth that won’t really lead to great WOM. Disappointing really, the interest was there and the concept was cool enough to turn this into a mini breakout. But sadly the quality just came up short. Excellent for Barbarian, I love to see it. Hopefully this can finish in the 45M range or so. And I want to see Woman King make every penny it can. Drop seems pretty decent, but 100M it anything crazy like that is pretty much dead.

So not only is DWD performing really well in my area, the Avatar re-release is actually out-selling DWD today for most theatres that are playing Avatar. Not sure about elsewhere, but I really think this has a shot at mid-teens. So many people I know are seeing it this weekend, I'm kind of jealous because I'm not able to.

Avatar gunning for low-teens